US Troops Now in 4 African Countries to Fight LRA

[jakeXT]

U.S. troops helping in the fight against a brutal rebel group called the Lord's Resistance Army are now deployed in four Central African countries, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa said Wednesday.

The U.S. announced in October it was sending about 100 U.S. troops — mostly special operations forces — to Central Africa to advise in the fight against the LRA and its leader Joseph Kony, a bush fighter wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

Rear Adm. Brian L. Losey, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa, said the U.S. troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic.

"We've already seen a decrease in the lethality of LRA activities, which we think is attributable in part to the pressure we and our partners are applying," Losey said in a telephone briefing to journalists.

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=15764816

[PufPuf23]

1. Lord's Resistance Army

From Wiki:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord's_Resistance_Army

The Lord's Resistance Army (also Lord's Resistance Movement or Lakwena Part Two) is a militant group with a syncretic Christian extreme religious ideology, known for the extreme atrocities they commit against civilians, including killings, mutilations, and in some accounts even cannibalism.[4]. The group operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.[5] The group used to operate mainly in northern Uganda and also in parts of South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the DRC.

The Lord's Resistance Army was formed in 1987 in the Acholi region of Northern Uganda. Initially, the LRA was an outgrowth and continuation of the larger armed resistance movement waged by some of the Acholi people against a central Ugandan government which they felt marginalized them. Over 25 years, the LRA's political goals have become much harder to decipher. In the past decade, the group has spent much of its energy attacking, killing and enslaving unarmed Acholis of its own tribe (including many women and children). It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the "spokesperson" of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the group believes can represent itself in many manifestations.

The group is based on a number of different beliefs including local religious rituals, mysticism, traditional religion, Acholi nationalism and Christianity[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.[16][17][18] The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, sexual enslavement of women and children and forcing children to participate in hostilities.[19]